Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 20:50:46 -0500
Reply-To: mac.chen@IX.NETCOM.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: Scott Chen <mac.chen@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject: Re: Demographics
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
I was born in 1962 in NYC and grew up on Long Island. I was a pretty
good student but lacked ambition and promptly stunned everyone in my
world by entering the Coast Guard right out of high school in 1980.
I've been with them ever since, and they have provided me with numerous
training and travel opportunities. After my initial shipboard tours as
a non-rate on a buoy tender and a tugboat out of Portsmouth, VA, I
trained in electronics and did tours in Hawaii, Iwo Jima (Japan), and
San Francisco. Somewhere along the way I spent one memorable summer on
board the tall ship Eagle, and sailed across the pond and back visiting
England, France, the Azores, and Bermuda. While in San Francisco I
became a volunteer at the Marine Mammal Center doing rehab, an
experience that had a profound impact on my life. For five months of
1989, I took a leave of absence from the CG and spent the spring and
summer working at the Sea Otter Rehabilitation Center in Seward, Alaska
treating otters injured as a result of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. On
my return to the Coast Guard, I decided to become a pollution
investigator and merchant vessel examiner, with my initial tour at the
Marine Safety Office in Houston, TX. While in Alaska, I met many
wonderful people, including my wife, Patty, who grew up in Vancouver,
BC and is now finishing her third year of veterinary school in pursuit
of her dream. I am pursuing my own dream, and hope to be transferred
next summer to one of the Coast Guard Icebreakers and visit Antarctica
and all the great ports en route. I am currently attached to the Coast
Guard Command Center in Washington, DC, which is a different but very
interesting aspect of the Coast Guard.
I am also an avid bicyclist, both of the Mountain and Road variety. I
participated in one of the AIDS Rides, and last year started racing by
jumping in with both feet and competing in the 24 hours of Canaan. I
have commuted between Rockville, MD and Washington, DC by bicycle for
the past three years, which has been mentally and physically
fulfilling. Besides less wear and tear on your vehicles, you avoid
traffic and gridlock and arrive at work and home with a good frame of
mind. My wife works at NIH during the summer and started commuting to
her workplace by bicycle two summers ago. If you think you can't do it,
think again. Bicycle commuters have a saying- "never easy, always
rewarding".
I've always been mechanically inclined and have had my share of
"projects". It started out when I was a 15 year old with an old 4
banger 1963 Willys Jeep, which is practically a perfect vehicle for a
beginning driver/budding mechanic. Slow and bulletproof. I eventually
went through a 1968 Land Rover IIA, a 1970 Toyota Land Cruiser, and a
1968 Mustang fastback. My string of normal vehicles started with a
Honda Civic, then a Nissan Pathfinder, Toyota P/U and our current
Subaru Outback. I bought an old 1978 Saab 99 before buying my '84 Westy
almost two years ago. I have since rediscovered the joys of working on
vehicles again. We all know the feeling of self-satisfaction that comes
with repairing our own vehicles. It all came back as I finished my
first VW repair, the clutch slave cylinder. I mentally pocketed the
money I saved and remembered "I can do this!" With the help of the
list, the old girl has performed flawlessly and has taken on us on two
perfect camping trips, first to the Skyline Drive area and recently to
Cape Cod. Our three dogs, all mutts, accompany us wherever we go, and
they all love the Westy, with all the room to roam and windows to look
out of. Despite the lure of the new Eurovan Camper, we have resisted
all urges to sell our beloved Westy. It really is part of our family,
and it would break our hearts to part with her.
Scott
'84 Westy
Rockville, MD
| 
